What is e-Agriculture Strategy?
An e-Agriculture strategy is using innovative digital technology solutions like precision agriculture, drones, big data, predictive analytics, and blockchain to improve social and economic outcomes for smallholder farmers.
e-Agriculture programs aim to increase food security by helping smallholder farmers improve modern ICT4Ag farming methods and access to markets. Agricultural ICT4D strategies encompass the full agricultural value chain and includes adjacent technologies like digital financial services and geographic information systems.
Communication in Agriculture
Smallholder farmers have limited knowledge, services, and technologies available to them. They typically need support to adopt modern farming methodologies.
Agriculture technology solutions focus on extension services for farmers to adopt new technologies and innovation. ICTs can amplify the efforts of the extension agents to help farmers plan what crops to grow, source inputs for crop cultivation, and selling their produce in local market.
Chatbots offer an exciting opportunity for governments to engage farmers on the social media platforms where farmers already congregate. For example:
- Facebook chatbots are a popular way to answer basic questions or help farmers apply for government support services.
- SMS text message chatbots can also help private sector companies develop new business leads and educate extension agents on their services.
ICT communication tools can play a crucial role in supporting farmers to access new inputs, credit, and markets with personalized and customized services.
Examples of e-Agriculture Programs
The potential to achieve high impact at the farm-level requires appropriate technology and adoption methodologies. International development organizations can use e-Agriculture communication programs like those below to support ICTforAg value chain ecosystems in developing countries.
Apply Now! $2 Million for Smallholder Farmer AgriTech Solutions
Agriculture is by far the most important economic activity in Africa, employing about two-thirds of the continent’s working population. Yet agricultural productivity...
Apply Now: $17,000 Agriculture Satellite Data Machine Learning Challenge
The agricultural sector makes a substantial contribution to GDP and livelihoods across the developing world. However, regular and reliable agricultural data remains...
Apply Now: €2.7 Million West African Digital Agriculture Innovations Grants
West African countries face key climate change challenges, including sustainable use and management of biodiversity, and responsible production and consumption...
Apply Now: $300,000 for USAID Digital Agriculture Ecosystem Assessments
Digital agriculture solutions for weather-based insurance, pest diagnostic, agronomic advice, and crop monitoring can revolutionize yields and income for smallholder...
Apply Now: $15,000 for Online Conservation Conversation Platform Ideas
Historically, rural voices have been either missing or largely ignored in much of the debate and decision making around the management of natural resources, particularly...
How Smallholder Farmers Can Use Soil Map Data for Higher Productivity
Average cocoa yields in Ghana by smallholder farmers are currently 400 kg/ha, far below their production potential of over 1,500 kg/ha. Dominant factors contributing...
5 Ways to Get Women to Use Your AgriTech Application Innovation
While being a part of ICTforAg was a great chance to reconnect and learn, it is amazing to me that we need to have conversations about the need to engage female...
11 AgriTech Findings From West African Smallholder Farmers
The public ICT4Ag discussion is often focused on the use of smartphones and sophisticated applications. This often neglects more traditional channels and can unfairly...
Apply Now: $1.5 Million Smart Agriculture Grants from Gates Foundation
Smallholder farmers suffer from fundamental challenges to improving their own food security and their communities nutritional resilience. They face low agriculture...
Apply Now: $30,000 Funding for Your Asia AgriTech Solution
COVID-19 has disrupted the agriculture value chain at every level. The measures taken to contain the spread of the virus have stressed entire food systems. Today,...
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